goggles or a video receiver/LCD display
to get his or her FPV groove going.

What the Graupner Alpha 250Q
does offer is a complete, preassembled,
ready-to-fly 250mm carbon-fiber
frame outfitted with a pretuned, high-performance, brushless power system
and controlled by a powerful and
versatile telemetry-capable Graupner
radio system.

Graupner includes a set of spare
propellers in the box, as well as a 3S

11.1-volt 1,500 mAh flight battery, a
basic DC balancing charger, and full
printed documentation. Graupner makes
the racer grab-and-go convenient by
packaging the entire system in a black,
custom-fitted, aluminum carrying case
that features black-on-black Alpha
graphics on the side panels. Graupner
even includes a nice transmitter neck
strap in the package!

Alpha 250Q Quadcopter

With a plethora of 250mm frames
available, it can be difficult to design a
frame with unique aesthetics. Graupner’s
Alpha 250Q uses 3mm carbon-fiber
plate for the four motor arms and 2mm-
thick material for the frame decks. I like
the way the motor arms are subtly swept
forward and aft and the red anodized
aluminum spacers add a defining splash
of color to the frame.

A ball-isolated top plate is sized
to mount a Mobius video camera.
Graupner Ultra 2804-2,300Kv brushless
motors are preinstalled on the motor
arms and use red and black Graupner 5
x 3 C propellers.

The four brushless ESCs are
mounted between the stacked bottom
plates. I couldn’t find any information
online about their capacity. The early
prototype did not include a JST plug
for sourcing power to the onboard FPV
gear; however, I was advised that the
production version will.

I replaced the provided XT- 60
connectors with Deans Ultra-style
connectors. I used a Deans-style tap with
a short JST connector-equipped pigtail
to grab supply voltage for the FPV gear.

There is ample room for mounting a
variety of FPV-capable video cameras
to the front camera plate and a video
transmitter to the rear upper deck of the
Alpha.

The 3S 1,500 mAh LiPo flight battery
slips in place between the decks and
abuts the rear of the receiver. Should
a pilot wish to explore using a larger
battery pack, the slightly aft position
of the battery might be problematic.
Shifting the receiver’s location could be
an option.

Radio System

The heart and soul of any quadcopter
is its flight controller. I have flown
with several popular controllers that
are typically used in this class of
quadcopters. The Graupner flight
controller is unique in that it is
embedded in the Graupner GR- 18
receiver that comes premounted on
the Alpha quad. This receiver packs an
amazing amount of technology into its
relatively small footprint.

The GR- 18 contains not only a nine-channel 2. 4 GHz receiver and three-axis
gyro-based flight controller, but also
includes embedded telemetry sensors
that enable real-time telemetry of
altitude, received signal strength, receiver
voltage, and temperature. By including
an externally linked 2S to 4S XH-JST
battery telemetry module, a pilot can
remotely monitor the flight battery’s
voltage.